Become a Member or Supporter

NSUN membership is open to individuals with lived experience of mental ill-health, distress, or trauma as well as user-led groups.

You can also sign up as an NSUN supporter if you want to stay up to date with and support NSUN’s work but do not meet the criteria for full membership, or if you are a member but would also like to receive a semi-regular newsletter of key updates, and information on how to support NSUN.

Sign up with your chosen category of membership (or as a supporter) below. Signing up is completely free, however, if you’d like to support us by making a donation, you can do so here.

NSUN membership offers:

• Weekly bulletin with recommended reading, events, paid involvement opportunities, lived experience jobs and open funding pots
• Access to regular membership events and collaborative spaces including monthly Network Meetings, Mad Campaigns Lab, Mental Health & Migrant Justice Networking Space and free trainings for user-led groups
• Material, practical and promotional support to new and existing user-led campaigns
• Exclusive access to small grants programmes for user-led groups and paid creative commission opportunities for individuals 
• Connection to a unique network of over 5000 individuals and user-led groups with lived experience of mental ill-health, distress and trauma; the chance to work collaboratively to shift power and resource in mental health
• Signposting to other organisations that can provide help, support, and advice 

Please select your category below: you can sign up as either an individual or user-led group member. Alternatively (or in addition), you can join the network as a supporter.

Sign up as a member or supporter

Please read before signing up:

Once you sign up, you’ll get a confirmation email immediately, then start to receive weekly bulletins (Mondays). Please add info@nsun.org.uk to your safe senders/address book (especially if the email goes to spam/junk). If you don’t get a confirmation email, please re-submit a sign up form, ensuring the email address is correct. If you still do not get an email, and/or don’t start to get the weekly bulletins, email info@nsun.org.uk.

Please email us if you previously received NSUN emails but no longer do (e.g. you unsubscribed in the past). As well as submitting a new membership sign up form (below), we will also need to send you a short Mailchimp re-subscription form to complete.

1. Individual member

This category of membership is for anyone with lived experience of mental ill-health, distress, and/or trauma. This includes activists, researchers, lived experience workers, and community organisers. By joining you will become part of the network and receive the weekly members’ bulletin full of news and opportunities, and you can take part in projects and events that are only open to members. As an individual member you can vote in our Annual General Meetings (AGMs).

2. User-led group member

Choose this category of membership if you represent a user-led group* working in or around mental health at the community/grassroots level and wish to sign the group up as an NSUN member. By joining, your group will become part of the network (which includes lots of other user-led groups) and can access support for furthering your user-led initiative, including by taking part in projects, events and trainings that are only open to members. You will receive our weekly members’ bulletin full of news and opportunities, and occasionally other communications about relevant topics. As a user-led group member, you can vote in our AGMs.

If there are multiple people in your group who have lived experience and want to become members in order to get updates from us, they can also sign themselves up using the “individual member” sign up form above.

*Definition: a user-led group (ULG) is a group run “by and for” people with shared identities/experiences. If the majority of the people involved in running your group have lived experience of mental ill-health, distress or trauma (or otherwise share an identity with those you run the group for or with, and your work is connected to mental health in some way), you can sign up as a user-led group member of NSUN. If this is not the case, your group can still sign up as an NSUN supporter (below).

3. Supporter

This option is for people who are interested in NSUN’s work but who do not meet the criteria for full membership as they do not have direct/first-hand lived experience of mental ill-health, distress and/or trauma. It is also for representatives of groups/organisations that are not user-led (such as charities, higher education institutions and corporate organisations).

Full membership is reserved for individuals with lived experience/user-led groups, therefore supporters do not having voting rights at the AGM, and cannot sign up to attend member-only spaces (open to people with lived experience only), but will be kept up to date with NSUN’s work through a newsletter once every two months. You can also opt in to receive information on how to support NSUN’s work, including fundraising emails.

Full members can also sign up to the supporter mailing list if you want to get the bimonthly newsletter of key updates, and/or receive information on how to support us, in addition to your membership communications (the weekly bulletin, plus occasional ad-hoc emails).